Neon, noticeably, illuminates the charge. “With today’s social media platforms, neon serves as a backdrop for photo opportunities, and, as it once was and is proving to remain, art itself,” notes Nicole Alexander, whose West Town-based firm Siren Betty Design has used neon at spots as diverse as retro punk-rock River North bar Good Measure and super-chic Logan Square java spot Passion House Coffee Roasters. That it works across a portfolio of decidedly different concepts underscores its versatility, explains Alexander: “It fits in so many different design spaces: industrial, modern, trendy, classic, depending on the fonts, colors, phrases or shapes chosen…. It is nostalgic and trendy at the same time.”

Others, too, are equally smitten. At Wicker Park newcomer Neon Wilderness, Brad Bolt’s collab with Heisler Hospitality, it gets styled as a pair of electric antlers, which Bolt says “add to the outdoorsy feel of the space and are a fun alternative to taxidermy.”

Other media are commanding the spotlight, as well. LED lighting features prominently at Spanish brasserie Bar Biscay, whose amped-up interior effects—including hanging, backlit wall cubes from behind the bar and a procession of tube lights hovering from the ceiling— honor minimalist icons Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. “Everybody feels instantly more relaxed when they walk in and the lights are a little pinkish or purplish,” says co-owner Scott Worsham, who designed the West Town space. “People look better. They feel more relaxed. It does something to your cortex—you just kind of go, ‘Ahh.’”